Another stupid fucking article about hipster apathy. The only person that expressed any kind of nihilism recently was me and that wasn’t even nihilism. I was just saying I don’t see Obama as the Great White Hope. This sentiment was shared by 0 hipsters in the world (not even at this site – see David – see Blognigger) but somehow they get this reputation as, “Totally over it, man.” This is because out-of-touch Canadian journalists (and, I guess, BlogN) see young, fashionable people as misanthropic and ironic and too-cool-for-school. This is what ALL old people have ALWAYS said about young people and it’s never been true. It makes for a good headline. Editors like it because they think it’s going to attract a younger audience. But do these people look like jaded nihilists?
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Who the fuck possibly cares??? (Whoops!)
12.16.08 at 12:13 pm
Wow. I have been learned. Thanks Street Carnage!!
12.16.08 at 12:38 pm
At this point I think there are only two kinds of people who give a shit about reading another hipster article – hipsters and people who really fucking hate hipsters. Have fun guessing which one I am.
The article added nothing new to the discourse that wasn’t already covered by BN, Cross, AdBusters.
I think the reason hipsters are viewed generally as being somewhat nihilistic (as in: without ethos) is because the things they are most readily identified with are all temporary (partying, fashion). They make no statement and speak to no attachment. Call a punk a punk a punk, or a goth a goth, and they’re reaction would probably be something like: “yeah so what?”. Call a hipster a hipster and the reaction is always more like: “fuck you, I’m not a hipster”. There’s almost some kind of self-loathing there. You can’t get a room of hipsters to agree that they’re hipsters or that the term hipster means anything. I’m not making any judgments on that fact, I’m just saying that’s a fact.
The way the hipster scene (whatever that means) is perceived is as lacking any real cohesion beyond the fashion and partying. This is why people think they don’t believe in anything. It also makes the ‘hipster scene’ different than other well established scenes like punk, goth, hip-hop…whatever…in that those other scenes don’t seem like they’re trying to escape themselves by moving on to “the next”. This is where the “so over it” thing comes from I think. Most scenes have a history and touchstones and shit, its hard to find those within the context of the ‘hipster movement’ (again whatever that means).
To sum up my point, if I’m hanging around the Big Bop and there’s a punk show going on and you got the safety pin crew drinking out of broken beer bottles and I yell out something like “Fuck Black Flag” or “Fuck the Dead Kennedy’s” I’d probably get my ass kicked.
You’d never see a bunch of hipsters scrapping it out over MGMT. They just don’t care enough.
Finally, the people who hate on hipsters the most aren’t old people cursing the young, they’re twenty-somethings. Old people don’t care about hipsters, if they even know what a hipster is. They’re too busy working and doing real shit.
12.16.08 at 12:50 pm
haha, that first video looks like alot of fun. i agree with you about obama but i would totally be a part of that
12.16.08 at 12:54 pm
@ the FoOl
“nihilistic (as in: without ethos)”?
Sure, The Big Lebowski is a great movie, but there is no real connection between those two terms…
I guess the fact that I actually cared enough to comment on that small part of your comment excludes me being a hipster. Cool!
12.16.08 at 1:12 pm
I basically agree with the first poster. Furthermore, every single one of these classifications, whether punk, goth, or hipster, are based on gross generalizations that totally break down if you dive any deeper than music or fashion. Reading articles about any of this shit just makes my eyes twirl in their sockets like a slot machine.
12.16.08 at 1:20 pm
Take note that an article penned with the intent of decrying hipster excesses is illustrated by a photo set up by a stylist.
12.16.08 at 1:29 pm
Take note that “Michael,” in a failed attempt to point out some imagined damning hypocrisy, the discovery of which makes him apparently feel smug and sanctimonious, fails to realize that the article doesn’t “decry hipster excesses” at all.
With that said, I’m-a take the foOl’s side on this one.
The only people who’d give a flying, leaping, gazelle-like fuck about any of this are those who are personally offended at being labeled hipsters and those who feel an unreasonably all-consuming need to call others hipsters.
12.16.08 at 1:37 pm
It’s true that people who hate “hipsters” are ususally twenty-somethings. I was at a company holiday party recently, mentioned that I was looking for apts in Williamsburg b/c I was sick of living around a bunch of Pratt kids and gun violence since I always go to W.Burg on the weekends anyway. At this point all the young people at my table basically denounced the whole neighborhood and said that everyone that lives there is a pretentious asshole who “thinks they are so cool and so New York” they were red in the face pissed off just thinking about these so called hipsters. Most of the reasons for their hate were anectodal about someone being rude to them. So yeah just proves they are bitter and jealous. Also I must say that if you want to experience true unadulterated rudeness try walking through Fulton Mall and those people are definitley not hipsters.
By the way the one guy who was the most upset just by the thought of an entire neighborhood happened to be into industrial goth metal shit, and aren’t goths the most not-give-a-fuck-about-anything (except themselves) group? I mean that chick that was posted on here butchering herself and collecting her blood and shit, do you think she went out and voted, do you think she has a stance on foreign policy?
sorry that was so long a stupid.
12.16.08 at 1:49 pm
“Hipster” is to the new millennium what “yuppie” was to the 80s.
It’s a term that’s broadly used to disparage others, but it’s also a classification that no one identifies with.
12.16.08 at 1:51 pm
To answer your question:
No, they do not look like jaded nihilists.
They look like drunk poseurs.
12.16.08 at 1:53 pm
Nice plug!
I think a more effective route around this is to completely ignore them.
The author of this article is a journalist like a curator is an artist.
12.16.08 at 1:55 pm
it’s not fair for somebody older than 25 to criticize somebody under 25 for identifying with a youth cultural trend. or to contextualize them or even try to explain them to themselves. being young is about being free from prior experience. being young and taking part in youth culture is mostly about self-discovery. leave the hipsters, ravers, goths, punks, emos, metal heads, frat fagz, sorority whores, nerds, and unicyclists, alone. what’s so bad about not giving a shit about anything? everybody likes a disco ball…
12.16.08 at 1:56 pm
“…the article doesn’t “decry hipster excesses” at all.”
Oh, really? What is its purpose then?
12.16.08 at 2:07 pm
@king clovis…
“what’s so bad about not giving a shit about anything?”
It only starts to go “bad” when you obviously give a shit that people think you don’t give a shit.
@Michael…
Which article are you talking about? If it’s the Canadian one rather than the Street Carnage one, it seems to be stating that “hipsterism” is dead. I don’t see much about “excesses” in there at all, much less enough to make it the article’s premise.
Now you can go back to polishing your messenger bike.
12.16.08 at 2:12 pm
“…it seems to be stating that “hipsterism” is dead. I don’t see much about “excesses” in there at all, much less enough to make it the article’s premise.”
You’re absolutely right. The piece quite clearly declares “hipsterism” dead. Its author also posits a hypothesis about the cause of death pretty much throughout the article, but I won’t tell you what it is exactly. You should be smart enough to find it on your own.
12.16.08 at 2:37 pm
The reasons everyone hates hipsters are the aforementioned “to cool for school” and “I’m so new york” vibe, as well as the fact that most claim to be super knowledgeable and passionate about certain things when they’re really dilettantes. I think people who assume hipsters who don’t care are only referring to the hipsters that make up the old misshapes crowd or the type of people who go to cobrasnake events, nihilist poseurs.
12.16.08 at 2:47 pm
gavin seems to think the rest of the universe pays attention to the intricacies and distinctions of hipster culture with the same degree of detail that he does. however, with hipster culture finally having been fully co-opted by mainstream society, and with hipsters even embracing the term themselves, it seems that finally, the mainstream media has given up its love/hate relationship w/ it. most press accepts hipster culture as a given, rather than criticizing it, describing it, isolating it, etc.
once you move outside insular groups, the group in-fighting and squabbles become invisible and insignificant. this is why representatives of hipster culture like gavin, who are more likely to get media attention as a spokesperson than your average guitar toting skinny jeans wearing bedford dirtbag haircut should think twice before firing off extended rants against voting or green movement straw men. because then we have to sift through bullshit like this post when all we really want is a good laugh or a blognigger post.
SCTVB, please just make us laugh. i enjoy this website, but when i come across humorless articles or trolls like the ones mentioned above, i ask, why am i wasting my time reading this? if i wanted to read poorly written quasi-political nonsense, i would go to the vice magazine webpage. which i don’t.
12.16.08 at 2:51 pm
Michael, tell us now did you write this carp ?
12.16.08 at 2:55 pm
Haha. “Robert Dobbs, Jr.” Most of these idiots won’t even catch that.
12.16.08 at 2:56 pm
The “too cool for school” element is a big ‘un.
Those tagged as “hipsters” often appear to think that acting unimpressed at everything is an accomplishment in itself, rather than actually creating anything impressive themselves.
It’s the countercultural version of a slacker.
12.16.08 at 2:57 pm
FORGIVE US, WE’RE JUST CANADIAN.
12.16.08 at 3:00 pm
@ – Tampax
“It’s the countercultural version of a slacker.”
We’ve already rendered the term “counterculture” useless.
Here’s proof:
Many people would consider this to be fairly accurate:
“H&M and American Apparel are countercultural staples”
Sweet Lord.
12.16.08 at 3:52 pm
Pork Rind Pete, how does it feel to finally be on the trolly when everyone else jumped off?
12.16.08 at 3:53 pm
christ what a desperate cry for identity. havent you people heard of suicide?
12.16.08 at 4:07 pm
There are 2 reasons why guys dress a certain way.
1. The conviction that the person they want to fuck would like the look.
2. Something to do with their job, which is directly related to #1.
Girls, there are only 2 motives I can figure (but I’m dumb, clearly)
1. They see the guy they want, lookit what his bitch is wearing, go to the store and up the ante.
2. Fuck it, it’s comfortable and I’m not looking to F anyone today, lets watch a movie.
The only other category is for people like Bjork, and I don’t know what’s going on there.
12.16.08 at 4:07 pm
Haha, this post is exactly right. People who think there is some group of “hipsters” in this world who act bored & unenthusiastic about everything are the absolute worst. (Although technically Gavin, as I recall, you said that no one should vote & that all politicians are equally bad,.)
12.16.08 at 4:11 pm
Chachi, spare us no detail in describing what Derrick’s dick tastes like.
12.16.08 at 4:25 pm
you’re all a bunch of slackers! slackity-slack-slack
12.16.08 at 5:13 pm
Pork, I wrote a poem about how it tastes. Too bad you’ll never read it… but if you want a taste, he’d be happy to oblidge.
12.16.08 at 5:22 pm
The Tragically Hip is my favourite Canadian band.
12.16.08 at 5:56 pm
hipsters are annoying.
get mad.
12.16.08 at 8:22 pm
Here’s my problem with hipsters; they aren’t at all threatening to squares. kind of like your gay 8 year old neighbor–think he is odd but nothing more. get some muscles. no mustaches that don’t smell like meat. no shorts without boots. get your shit together and stop being such femmes. people will stop accusing you of being apathetic if they are scared of you raping their cousins and grandmothers.
12.16.08 at 9:25 pm
why are the girls not booty clapping? o-ba-ma. o-ba-ma.
the amount of celebratory rhythm that took place on bedford avenue that night was down right for the tools.
wow. hand clapping.
12.17.08 at 1:04 am
wow what an enthralling discussion on issues that have less importance or interest than 0.
12.17.08 at 2:40 am
I fucking LOVE music man.
12.17.08 at 3:09 am
Hipsters and hipster-hating young people are still more self-absorbed than anything else, which is why any article, whether for or against hipsters, will be heavily scrutinized, and people will leave a ton of comments, and the site posting the article will get a lot of traffic.
12.17.08 at 10:38 am
“Stop the fucking press! Gavin McInnes is too cool to vote!”
12.17.08 at 10:51 am
K. Admit it, the Adbusters article was brilliant, and it can be credited with destroying the idea of “the hipster” – but what the fuck is this new article??? how embarrasing.
12.17.08 at 2:02 pm
Hipsters like writing words without vowels? What the fck? S ths MSTRKRFT’S wrk?
12.17.08 at 5:11 pm
Are you kidding? This is what you posted Gavin?
12.17.08 at 6:01 pm
….getting drunk on the Hope Kool-Aid. Vote local and/or not at all! Hope TM! Change TM!
At least we can all pay attention to politics once every four years. You fucking shills.
12.17.08 at 9:09 pm
You’re definitely right about hipsters. These people toy with ideas they’ll never comprehend. These people aren’t “nihilists”– they’re spoiled rotten and whiny little imbeciles. Faced with a disaster of any kind and they’d run home crying to their parents, asking for consolation and money to buy new macbooks and colored contacts (or whatever it is they wear).
I think the main reason I hate them is because they ruin ideas such as “nihilism” by associating with them. They also ruin many great authors and books. As soon as I hear about some hipster reading Nietzsche or or some other author , I tend to associate them together and in a Pavlovian way, I can never read those things again.
Also, they are a manifestation of the average group of bratty and stupid people together. Mediocre , yet convinced they are better than you because they listen to “obscure ” music and drink overpriced coffee. When I hear them discuss politics….I envy the deaf.
01.13.09 at 3:56 am
I just reread this article and want to ad for anyone reading it who does’t live in Brooklyn but hipsters haven’t really been around Bedford Ave. for almost four years. Almost everyone in that video are just run of the mill yuppies with vague and postured attitudes toward being counter culture. Williamsburg might as well be the set of a reality show about people in their twenties discovering their inner hipster.
07.04.09 at 4:57 pm